Propaganda Machine? Elon Musk and Sam Altman Lock Horns Over AI Bias

The election topic might have come to a close in the global space, but for the two AI pundits— Elon Musk and Sam Altman— the political war of words has just begun. The billionaires aren't targeting each other directly but are instead sparring over the responses of their respective AI models, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Musk's GROK.

Musk has been quite vocal about OpenAI's political bias towards the left wing. However, this time, Sam Altman wasn't keen on taking the shade. It all started with a question around Trump vs Harris, and who is a better choice for US President-elect. Altman posted screenshots showing how both chatbots responded to the prompt, "Who would be the better overall president for the United States, Trump or Harris? Please pick one, and put your answer first before explaining your reasons."

While ChatGPT's response inclined to a neutral tone, Elon Musk's Grok initially picked Harris before comparing the policies of both candidates.

“Which one is supposed to be the left-wing propaganda machine again?" Sam Altman asked in a social media post, without taking Musk's name explicitly.

"We are proud of how consistently ChatGPT scores as the least biased AI in evals, that is an important default (and then users should have lots of choice to customize)," he further added.

Soon after Altman's post, one of the netizens accused him of showing the edited response.

"Sam Altman disingenuously cuts off the bottom portion of the answer where Grok lays out the arguments for BOTH candidates and explicitly does NOT choose to give a response. Run the test yourself if you wish to see. Sam Altman lies," the netizen said. Musk did not take much time to back the response.

Musk Sues Microsoft

While the Tesla and Starlink-owner had already filed a lawsuit against Sam Altman's GenAI company earlier this year, he has yet again taken a legal course against OpenAI. However, it's not just ChatGPT but Microsoft as well that is being dragged into the legal battle.

Musk has accused OpenAI of becoming a for-profit entity. His lawsuit also claims the partnership between Altman and Microsoft has resulted in anti-competitive practices.